SimplyMEPIS 7.0 Pre-releases

Am impressed enough with Mepis to actually register and provide some comments

In general terms, once installed the beta 2 seems to be as solid and reliable as the 6.something series, though it has only been installed so far for around an hour or so, so there may be issues to report at a later time.

I did notice that the upgrade process from the pre-beta applied my old settings inconsistently (some were retained, some were lost), while I lost some of the software installed on the pre-beta (Quanta and Acrobat primarily, not an issue as easily re-installed via synaptic).

The process of installing the nVidia drivers for my 7300 went flawlessly using the MEPIS X-Windows assistant, though I was surprised that I was asked to reboot rather than restart the x-server. No matter...

One aspect that did cause some problems. First boot of the Live CD, and my monitor returned an 'out of range' error. Thankfully the option is in the boot-up menu to boot with the vesa drivers, so that got me by till installed on the hard drive (which also thankfully then booted under vesa) and was able to install the nVidia drivers. If it is any help to the developers in resolving this small problem, I have a nVidia 7300 GT running an Asus MW221u 22" LCD.

Networking with Vista - http://www.mepis.org/misc/smileys/barf.gif - it only took about 15 minutes to display a directory that contained around 600 files, while the same directory on my XP box took mere seconds. That said, this is the first time since I ran Suse 9.3 that I have been able to even access the Vista box, so a big step forward, though a long way to go. I can only assume that it is something in the Vista setup that makes it demand a user id and password, but for once it let me in - connection previously, even with earlier versions of MEPIS, has been refused.

Connection to the Internet appears to be slower than on the XP and Vista boxs - it takes ages for a connection to a site to be established, though once established it runs well (till one tries to access another site) - is this a setting somewhere that I can adjust?

With greetings

Romane

> Connection to the Internet appears to be slower than on the XP and Vista boxs - it takes ages for a connection to a site to be established, though once established it runs well (till one tries to access another site) - is this a setting somewhere that I can adjust?
Maybe that for some reason, the Domain Name Server is different (and much further from your computer) from the one the Windows boxes use ?
In MEPIS, I usually hand-edit /etc/resolv.conf to change the DNS.

> Maybe that for some reason, the Domain Name Server is different (and much further from your computer) from the one the Windows boxes use ?
> In MEPIS, I usually hand-edit /etc/resolv.conf to change the DNS.

The three computers are on the same network, physically within about 6 inches of each other, connected through the same switch to each other and to the same modem (ADSL 1500 x 256). All ethernet cables are the same length (about 1 metre) and of the same category. Previous versions of Linux, including MEPIS, have performed in this sphere better.

If I have to ever again manually edit a configuration file, I will simply wipe the disk and walk away from the distribution, no matter how good it otherwise is - those days should, for the general user such as myself, be long gone, especially if Linux wishes to seriously compete with the Windows platform (and a bouquet to MEPIS here; I think that it is close to being capable of taking on this challenge). My so far limited appraisal of the graphical tools available in MEPIS suggest that I will thankfully never need to look at a command line or a configuration file again - ever

With greetings

Romane

Firstly, your CATx cables are too short. According to the IEEE 802.3 standard specs, the minimum distance between nodes, or MAUs, is 2.5 metres. If you ignore the specs, you will have problems. End of story.

Secondly, no matter how good the distro is, circumstances will sometimes dictate that you must hand-edit a configuration file. It's nice that they're in human readable format, so you can--quite unlike windoze where you usually can't determine the contents of any config file, and are generally considered to be too stupid (by microsoft) to be able to help yourself.

How's my posting?

Please call: 1-800-DEV-NULL

In this specific instance of setting a static DNS, the MEPIS Network assistant does offer a GUI for it...

The slow internet may also be due to IPv6 being enabled in Firefox. Check like this:
- open firefox
- in address bar type about:config
- in the filter box, type IPv6 and hit enter
- check value of network.DNS.DisableIPv6. If it is set to false, double click to set to true. Then try again.

Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question

Good morning

> The slow internet may also be due to IPv6 being enabled in Firefox.

This appears to have fixed the problem. It was set to false. Have tried about half a dozen sites since setting to true, and much much faster. Many thanks for picking up on this.

With greetings

Romane

Good morning

> Firstly, your CATx cables are too short. According to the IEEE 802.3 standard specs, the minimum distance between nodes, or MAUs, is 2.5 metres. If you ignore the specs, you will have problems. End of story.

You are the first to ever tell me what the spec was called, let alone about the minimum length. To me, a computer is like driving a car - I don't need to know how the engine works. So, got nothing to do with ignoring the specs, just to do with never even knew what the spec was called, let alone what they are (got enough other things on my plate). My thanks for the info.

That said - what problems? Everything on the network has over the years run without a hitch, and the few issues I have raised in this thread have proven after all to be problems, not with MEPIS, not with my hardware, but with third-party software (e.g. Firefox, as noted in the post above).

Having a configuration file in human readable form is useless if you don't know what you are reading. One thing to read it, another to understand what you are reading. And frankly, I have yet to read a configuration file that didn't need considerably more technical savvy to understand than a graphical interface needs.

With greetings

Romane

Glad to see that enabling IPv6 solved some aspect of your problems.

The balance of my comments are valid and stand thus.

Sporadic timing problems on the wire, because the speed of light is too slow; and the CAT5/5e/6 cable is designed to be a delay line between nodes and/or MAUs.

If this is a 10/100 switch that you're connected to, and end-up replacing the switch in the future, you will probably have observable connection and speed issues. (Frankly, I doubt that you're running at full speed on your mini-network right now.) If it's GboE...I'd anticipate that you might get away with it, at something less than Gb speeds.

HOWEVER...standards exist for a reason, and that is to establish those conditions conducive to the correct functioning of the structure at issue.

I've repaired so many networks--even household electrical wiring--done by people who don't understand, nor adhere to, the specifications involved; that I've arrived at the opinion that people really should hire professionals for such things.

Then, one would, logically, learn that which they don't currently understand. It's not difficult, as my soon-to-be-5th grade daughter would tell you: "You only have to learn it once."

Do what you want, then.

How's my posting?

Please call: 1-800-DEV-NULL